زین ضرورت گیج و دیوانه شدم ** لیک در باطن همانم که بدم
By this necessity I was made distraught and mad (in appearance), but inwardly I am just the same as I was.
عقل من گنج است و من ویرانهام ** گنج اگر پیدا کنم دیوانهام2425
My intelligence is the (hidden) treasure, and I am the ruin (which covers it); if I display the treasure, (then) I am mad (indeed).
اوست دیوانه که دیوانه نشد ** این عسس را دید و در خانه نشد
The (real) madman is he that has not gone mad, he that has seen this night patrol and has not gone home.
دانش من جوهر آمد نه عرض ** این بهایی نیست بهر هر غرض
My knowledge is substantial, not accidental; and this precious (thing) is not for (the purpose of gaining) every (worldly) interest.
کان قندم نیستان شکرم ** هم ز من میروید و من میخورم
I am a mine of candy, I am a plantation of sugar-canes: it is growing from me, and at the same time I am eating (of it).
علم تقلیدی و تعلیمی است آن ** کز نفورش مستمع دارد فغان
Knowledge is conventional and acquired (not real), when he (its owner) laments because the hearer is averse to (hearing) it.
چون پی دانه نه بهر روشنی است ** همچو طالب علم دنیای دنی است2430
Since it is (learned) as a bait (for popularity), not for the sake of (spiritual) enlightenment, he (the seeker of religious knowledge) is just as (bad) as the seeker of vile worldly knowledge;
طالب علم است بهر عام و خاص ** نی که تا یابد از این عالم خلاص
(For) he is seeking knowledge on account of the vulgar and the noble, not in order that he may win release from this world.
همچو موشی هر طرف سوراخ کرد ** چون که نورش راند از در گشت سرد
Like a mouse, he has burrowed in every direction, since the light drove him (back) from the door (the entrance to the hole) and said, ‘Away!’
چون که سوی دشت و نورش ره نبود ** هم در آن ظلمات جهدی مینمود
Inasmuch as he had no way (of getting out) to the open country and the light, he continued to make (such) an exertion even in that darkness.